1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a loader for weapons, and, more particularly, to a loader used in conjunction with gatling guns. More specifically, the present invention relates to a paintball loader that is mountable adjacent to a plurality of paintball gun and which sequentially feeds a supply of stored paintballs to the firing chambers of the paintball guns.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the operation of a paintball gun, the player uses a pneumatically powered gun. A variety of gases are used in the art (for example, CO2, Nitrogen, High Pressure Air). Pneumatically powered gun that shoots paintballs are propelled by short bursts of the pressurized gas. Typically, paintballs are gelatin-covered, spherical capsules having a diameter of approximately 11/16 inch that contain a colored liquid. Upon hitting the target or objective, the paintball ruptures and leaves a colored mark.
The current state of the art in paintball loaders involved single-bolt, non-rotating paintball guns. The first pneumatic projectile launchers used manually actuated reciprocating bolts which have several disadvantages that inherently limit the maximum rate of fire achievable. First, only one projectile is loaded at a time. Second, any interruption in the flow of projectiles, such as binding in the loading hopper, reduces the cycle speed. Finally, the bolt must reverse direction during the loading cycle, further reducing the maximum possible cycle speed.
As the game of paintball has grown in sophistication, semi-automatic paintball guns, guns that sequentially fire paintballs as fast as the trigger can be repeatedly pulled by the user, have become more prevalent. The high firing rate capability of semi-automatic paintball guns has necessitated the use of bulk loader devices in conjunction with such guns. Typically, a bulk loader device includes a housing which is positioned above and slightly to one side of the paintball gun. The housing is adapted to internally store a relatively large quantity of paintballs (for example, 100-200 paintballs) and has an outlet opening through which the stored paintballs can sequentially drop. A feed tube is connected to the bottom outlet opening of the housing and is connected to the paintball gun's hollow firing chamber.
During normal operation of the loader, paintballs drop through the bottom housing outlet opening, through the feed tube, and into the gun's firing chamber, such that the paintballs are gravity fed to the gun during firing. Paintball jams frequently occur within the loader housing during rapid sequential firing of the gun. These jams prevent the normal gravity delivery of paintballs downwardly through the housing outlet opening, with the result that the paintball stack contained in the feed tube can be totally depleted by several shots of the paintball gun.
In the past, clearing of such jams has required that the gun be forcibly shaken to dislodge the individual paintballs causing the jam within the loader housing. The need to dislodge the jammed paintballs is highly undesirable since it interrupts the user's ability to continually fire the gun. Internal agitating motors have been added to disrupt any potential blockages and keep the flow constant.
Other prior art loaders can be positioned below the barrel of the gun while still being able to supply paintballs to the firing chamber at the required rate (U.S. Pat. No. 5,954,052).
The rate of fire (ROF) of paintball guns has limitations. The laws of physics restrict the maximum ROF for single-barrel breech paintball guns. Multiple barrel paintball gun rigs have been made by bolting several paintball guns together in a side-by-side fashion, thus increasing the shooter's ROF. In conventional loaders, each successive ball must be sufficiently accelerated from a static position until the paintball is placed in position to be fired. As the bolt clears the breech in the rearward direction, the ball begins to fall into position inside the breech. Typically, pneumatic bolts can reach their rearmost position, stop and return forward before the ball has time to drop completely into the breech, thereby damaging the fragile ball.
Accordingly, a conventional loader would be unable to feed a rotating gun system at high rates of fire. The breeches of a rotating gun system pass would pass by a static loader outlet at speeds higher than would allow a paintball to be introduced into the breech. The problem is the tendency of paintballs to break due to misalignment of the loader outlet as paintballs are fed into the moving breeches of barrels on a rotating gun assembly. Prior art loader mechanisms do not reliably chamber the paintball as it is “handed” off from the loader into the firing chamber. During this part of the operation, control of the timing is not adequate to assure trouble-free operation.
The result is breakage and consequent jamming due to the fragility of the paintballs as the loader feeds individual paintballs into the breeches of successively positioned barrels. Simply stated, a static, conventional loader cannot be successfully mated to multiple, rotating breeches at high speeds. Thus, there is a continuing need for improved loaders.